a lovely thought

Published by Léna

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A few weeks ago, I came across this post on one of my favorite blogs, A Cup of Jo, and I bookmarked it immediately. In it, blogger Joanna Goddard describes her current bedtime routine with her two sons.

She’ll climb into the middle of their shared bed to tell her boys stories, sing songs, and lull them to sleep. During this time, she noticed that her sons love to each grab one of her upper arms and squeeze them. At first, this gesture made her ashamed of her arms and their ‘squishiness’, but quickly realized that her kids were doing this because they love her arms, and they love her squishiness.

This post really resonated with me because, as a kid, me and my siblings’ absolute favorite thing to do on weekend mornings was to climb into bed with our parents and rest our heads on our mom’s ‘squishy’ belly. We just loved her body. It was always warm, and strong, and cozy. As children, we had no idea that fat was ‘bad’ or that thin was ‘good’, In fact, we far preferred our mom’s soft body over my dad’s lean and bony one (still love you, Papa!). To this day, nothing feels better when I’m feeling sad than a big hug from my mom. It’s the most comforting thing in the world.

I love this story for so many reasons. First, because it reminds me of a time when I didn’t have all these socially-constructed rules and regulations for what constitutes a good or acceptable body. I wasn’t born knowing those rules, so I certainly don’t have to follow them now!

Second, it makes me realize that (one of) my fears about having children – that my body will change forever – is so silly and insignificant. No matter what I look like after I have kids, my kids will love me because that is how they’ll know me, their Mama who loves them unconditionally. My husband will love my new shape because my body produced his children. I will love my body because it can do so many amazing things.

Finally, I love it because it also reminds me of the fact that I have a body, but I am a soul. My body is just a vessel for all the things that make me me – my love of cooking, how I snort when I laugh really, really hard, my creativity, my empathy, my impatience, my scatter-brained-ness, my thirst for learning new things, and so much more.

If you haven’t yet, please go and check out the post (and all the lovely comments!). It will definitely put a smile on your face.